BlackBerry London Is First BBX Handset

Of late, RIM's smartphones and it PlayBook tablet have not been wowing many, and the company’s next project, its BBX-based phones are going to be
crucial to its long term success, one imagines.

That is why a leaked image of what is purporting to be the
first BBX device has garnmered so much interest. The Verge website has posted a picture of
what claims to be a phone codenamed the BlackBerry London, which is due to be
launched in the summer of 2012.

While The Verge were initially cautious, pointing out that
this could be a hoax, other sources at RIM, speaking to BGR, have confirmed
that this image is in fact real and we will be seeing the BlackBerry London in
shops in the middle of next year.

The phone itself is said to be thinner than an iPhone 4 and
will have the same footprint as the Samsung Galaxy S II.Just from looking at the leaked image, it’s
clear to see that RIM is planning a major design overhaul with the London getting a much
more angular and industrial look than previous BlackBerrys. The phone does have some resemblence to the Porchse-designed P'9981 handset we saw only a couple of weeks ago.

It will have a dual-core TI OMAP processor inside clocked to 1.5GHz and partnered with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of local storage, an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

BBX is going to be RIM’s smartphone
and tablet platform for the future and is based on the QNX OS currently seen on the PlayBook. The screen in the
leaked image shows the handset running an OS which looks similar to the QNX software,
though there have been some tweaks.

The launch of the phone could be delayed if the company
doesn’t manage to iron out a number of kinks with the BBX software, namely
problems it is reportedly having getting BBM and BES working.

RIM needs to get the launch of its first BBX device spot on
if is to have a chance to competing with iOS, Android and even WP7.

Let us know in the comments what you think of the look of
the BlackBerry London or whether or not you think the image is real.